The Pod Bay

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geoffc

01:39

Saw something about Starliner leaking Helium in orbit?

What would it say if SPaceX has to rush launch a Dragon to take them home...

2 hours later…

Erin Anne

03:46

found some discussion old.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1d95g62/…

closest to a source I've seen is a Spaceflightnow tweet, but it seems like nobody is concerned by the leak right now. Astronauts did their scheduled sleep and they're pushing forward with their planned ISS rendezvous

4 hours later…

Rory Alsop

07:54

@ErinAnne You'd hope they have reentry profiles that can work with reduced helium for manoeuvring

1 hour later…

uhoh

09:15

Q: Stars (other than Sol) resolvable as disks

Have any stars (other than Sol) been imaged as actual disks (the way we've seen the planets and moons of our solar system)? Presumably such a star would be relatively close to us and/or relatively large, and the imaging device would have to be capable of very high resolution. Which telescopes are...

photography

@ErinAnne it's been migrated

Erin Anne

09:30

good? good, I think

Rory Alsop

09:52

Yes - thank you for the flags

2 hours later…

TheMatrix Equation-balance

11:33

What is your favorite live stream? youtube.com/watch?v=FznZfP3Zuzc

TheMatrix Equation-balance

12:32

TheMatrix Equation-balance

12:51

Rory Alsop

looking good, even with 1 engine out

TheMatrix Equation-balance

Fly baby fly

Rory Alsop

I just want to see the hot staging work well, and then the aerobraking from the wings on the way down. Would be good to see it successfully get to the surface

wow

booster separation was slick

TheMatrix Equation-balance

Rory Alsop

That splashdown was so cool

geoffc

12:58

Holy cow! Splashdown!

Lost one engine on landing burn.

TheMatrix Equation-balance

Perfect landing - Stage 1 !!!

geoffc

Looked like it hovered too!

MIght see a Mechazilla catch of flight 5 then... That will be wild.

TheMatrix Equation-balance

geoffc

I saw a funny complaint about the CST 100 launch that they did not track engines etc during launch. So used to SpaceX graphics now.

Some pointed out SpaceX has had dozens of webcasts to get it fine tuned. Ipointed out they have had 2.5 dozen dozens (gross) changes with 300+ launches.

Rory Alsop

13:15

This is looking les positive for Starship...

geoffc

Musk tweeted internal cams (11) are working and transmitting but external is not for some reason. They hope to have them back in time for reentry.

I was hoping to see the booster tip over... That would have been cool.

TheMatrix Equation-balance

13:36

Rory Alsop

The green plasma is very pretty - I'm assuming it's something ablating, changing the colour from the pink?

geoffc

Oh lord, watching the heat eat away at the flap... Slowly eaten away...

I am cheering for get into cooler air, slow down below hypersonic, just cool enough for the stainless to last..

Still have signal! 42K and 7000Kph

Still high hypersonic and camera is working.

Do they need that front flap for the flip?

Still getting speed/alt telemetry...

Camera back at 33Km alt!

Rory Alsop

13:53

can't see much any more, but deceleration looks good

geoffc

Attitude is all wrong for the flip.

Rory Alsop

oh that's not good

geoffc

Almost subsonic... Nice and cool

Rory Alsop

I reckon that flap was probably important :-)

geoffc

Did you see the tiles strip off?

Still looks like it is there. Wow.

Rory Alsop

13:54

@geoffc and moving!

geoffc

Into flip territory now.

Flo[ starts at 1K last times

No engiknes

Rory Alsop

look at that flap!

I think we saw it hit

geoffc

That flap gets the "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" award!

I think it did the flip, hovered, and then tipped over. (On a work call, cannot listen to the audio).

Elon has a kid with him!

Rory Alsop

@geoffc I think so - we just didn't get telemetry on the engines shown on screen

geoffc

Saw flames.. But no screen update.

Damn, cannot scroll back the X stream. Will have to watch NSF's for commentary on what happened.

Watching not listening due to stupid work meetings.

The marshmellowting is adorable.

Rory Alsop

13:59

I started watching it onspaceX's youtube channel, but then it had the elon bitcoin nonsense, so went to the spacex.com view

geoffc

Elon bitcoin means fake channel.

Lots of those.

Rory Alsop

yup

geoffc

14:16

Re-watched the landing on NSF. Seems like it did it.

Wild. And the fact the flap took so much damage and survived is amazing! Reusable, not in this design, but survivable? Astounding!

The NSF guys were fun to listen too. Saying what I was thinking.

Cannot wait for the after action report on this... HOw badly was it damaged, how well did it survive.

Bring on IFT-5 baby!

fyrepenguin

I was so expecting that flap to fall off completely but it amazingly stuck through. Goddamn

Seeing the booster just chilling upright on the surface of the ocean was an awesome view though

geoffc

@fyrepenguin When AWST does its next aerospace awards, they need to create one to give to the flap. :) HOly smokes.

fyrepenguin

Puts the possibility of a catch into the realm of feasibility

geoffc

And the fact Starlink kept signal all the way through the plasma was amazing.

TDRS eat your heart out.

fyrepenguin

Couple hiccups here and there but that was impressive

geoffc

14:19

Have we ever seen re-entry eat into a structural article, inch by inch? Wild. The flap teams are going to have so much data!

Watching the plasma on IFT3 was awesome. Watching it eat away at the flap on this was even better.

fyrepenguin

The cyan plasma was just beautiful

And unless the engine out(s) during takeoff and landing trigger a mishap, I think were good for another launch as soon as they can have a ship ready and a license processed (and maybe a flap hinge reinforced)

TheMatrix Equation-balance

14:36

Looking forward to a final analysis of a stage-2 flip and landing.

geoffc

14:51

@TheMatrixEquation-balance With a half destroyed flap. And likely the other side was just as bad!

TheMatrix Equation-balance

This is the key data they needed. And they've got it full!

TheMatrix Equation-balance

15:49

"Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!" Elon Musk wrote on X. scientificamerican.com/article/…

2 hours later…

fyrepenguin

17:58

Starliner is safely docked at the ISS!

TheMatrix Equation-balance

Lucky day today. :)

3 hours later…

Erin Anne

20:48

wow the NASA statement on Starliner blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2024/06/06/…

> As Starliner began its approach to the space station, five reaction control system thrusters failed off during flight. Mission teams performed a series of hot-fire tests which re-enabled four of the thrusters while the crew manually piloted the spacecraft at the station’s 200-meter hold point. After re-selecting four of the thrusters, Starliner had the fault tolerance required to approach the space station for docking.

emphasis mine

kudos for recovering, but holy crap, they temporarily went outside the thruster fault tolerance for docking

TheMatrix Equation-balance

Built by Boeing, it starts to feel more like being built in Russia.

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